► Judge Chris Magana of Wichita, KS; Judge Roy Bean Wannabee Print
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Judge Chris Magana of Wichita, KS; Judge Roy Bean Wannabee

 

The State of Kansas provided Chris Magana with a law license in 1980 after he graduated from the University of Kansas School of Law.

 

FYI: Judge Roy Bean was an infamous Justice of the Peace and saloon owner in Texas who called himself the "The Law West of the Pecos." Roy was also affectionately referred to as the Hanging Judge.

 

The Kansas Commission on Judicial Qualifications found Chris guilty of the following misconduct.

  • Improperly held prospective juror, Ms. McDaniel in contempt for failure to appear on second day of jury selection
  • Failed to provide juror opportunity to be heard re: contempt (due process)
  • Juror told court she couldn’t come in because she has no day care, her mother was sick and that she was a single mom
  • At criminal contempt hearing, Chris failed to advise Ms. McDaniel she had a constitutional right to be represented by an attorney and if she couldn’t afford one the court would appoint one
  • Without hearing any evidence at the contempt hearing, Chris convicted McDaniel of direct criminal contempt and sentenced her to -month controlling jail sentence and ordered that she serve 30 days in jail beginning that day
  • Commission concluded that 30-day sentence Chris imposed was abusive and unduly harsh
  • In his journal entry, Chris failed to specify the conduct constituting contempt and merely referenced the hearing transcript as evidence of McDaniel’s guilt
  • Subsequently, the Court of Appeals overturned the finding of contempt against McDaniel because Chris’s reference to the hearing transcript did not meet the statutory requirement that a judge describe the conduct constituting contempt and “direct contempt orders that do not meet the requirement set forth in the statute are void”

As a direct consequence of his misconduct the cheerleaders for Attorney Misfits sitting on the Judicial Qualifications Commission punished Chris by gifting him with a complimentary admonition.

 

And lastly, apparently Chris holds the legal opinion that “due” process is the means by which the grass becomes moist in the a.m.

 

As we speak (ca. September 2019), Chris continues to sit as an Eighteenth Judicial Court Judge in Wichita, Kansas.